Shadow Juries

Question 1

What are shadow juries?

Answer 1

Shadow Jury → a group of people hired by trail consultant to watch trials and report their impressions of the evidence presented, they are asked to make a verdict of guilty or not guilty. → this group will sit in on a real life trial, often in the gallery → the shadow jury do not have any influence over the trial.

Question 2

What are strengths of shadow juries?

Answer 2

• High ecological validity- this is a real case→ can see first hand factors that affect the jury decision making increasing credibility.
• Ethical - they are not under the same stress as the actual jury

Question 3

What are weaknesses of shadow juries?

Answer 3

• Low validity - they know that they have no influence on the real trail so they don’t feel the same pressure lack accuracy
• Extraneous variables - e.g gender of the defendant we cannot establish a cause and effect.
• Low generalisability - the shadow jury is not always randomly selected